MUKDEN IN SIGHT.
STORMING A HILL.
Having struck their blow the Japanese made strenuous efforts to
envelope the defeated and demoralised enemy. Four roads were open to
the retreating armies. On the East they were falling back through
Taelin toward Wushun: on the West they had the railway and the
main road to Mukden: and between these points were two roads, from
Panlasantzu and Hialiuhotzu, leading North. About these communications
the Japanese strove to cast four loops from which there could be no
escape. Our left flank endeavoured to drive the Russians from the
railway into the mountainous region, while our right pressed them hard
among the hills.
The failure of this enterprise was due to one cause. Our force was too
small. Though we had suffered serious loss and though the men were
exhausted by continuous fighting, so eager were they to reap the
full reward of victory that they were prepared to take any risk. But
the caution of the older leaders forbade pursuit beyond the Sha-ho,
and this time their prudence was justified. North of the river the
Russians had entrenched positions and the country was more favourable
for defence than we had supposed. Their powers of resistance too were
still great, and their artillery served them well. Yet neither defences
nor powers of resistance would have availed had the Japanese been as
numerous as General Kuropatkin seemed to imagine.
It is a remarkable feature of the war--the complete breakdown of
the Russian Intelligence branch. From the first they grossly and
even ludicrously exaggerated the forces opposed to them. General
Kuroki’s army was magnified twofold. General Keller reported that at
Mou-tien-ling he was repulsed by a greatly superior force, whereas he
was driven back by four companies of infantry! On another occasion
a whole division was checked by a single battalion whose commander
adopted the simple and familiar ruse of posting his men in small groups
over a wide front. The truth is that the army was too small to risk
vigorous and prolonged pursuit or to make those extended flanking
movements that were so successful before the concentration of the
Russian forces and the abandonment of attempts to relieve Port Arthur.
Some critics have sought to prove that the Japanese kept Port Arthur
as a bait to lure the enemy South and that the prolonged resistance of
General Stoessel was of the highest service to Marshal Oyama. Nothing
could be further from the fact. The Japanese considered the fall of
Port Arthur essential to their command of the sea: it was urgently
needed also as the only port free from ice in the Winter. Yet had
they realised for a moment that General Stoessel could hold out after
the first week of August they would have contented themselves with
an investment. That, at any rate, is the deliberate statement of men
responsible for the conduct of the campaign. And they had reason, for
Port Arthur not merely retarded progress in Manchuria but twice robbed
the Japanese of the fruits of hard won victory.
From a hill, near the village of Sha-ho, I saw Mukden on the morning
of October the 16th. In the grey distance, across the plain which
autumn had tinted with purple and brown, rose wall and towers--a vague
shadow that melted into mist, like a city of dreamland. Away to the
West among the pine groves thundered the guns of the Western army,
and in the little hamlet at my feet was assembled the detachment that
was to try its luck on the other side of the river and to meet with
the first reverse to the Japanese arms. In the hope of striking the
enemy from the rear and compelling them to abandon their first line
of defence, the detachment, under General Yamada, crossed the Sha-ho,
captured two guns, and seemed on the point of accomplishing its purpose
when a division of the Russians came down from the North-east and
simultaneously an attack was delivered from the West. Surrounded on
both flanks the regiment cut its way back, but left behind nine field
and five mountain guns--the first guns lost by the Japanese.
[Illustration: Foreign Attachés and Correspondents.]
South of the Sha River the enemy still held one position until October
the 27th. Its tactical value to the Russians was insignificant, though
its importance was great as a post of observation. Whoever retained the
hill could survey the lines of both armies and note their movements.
Haitaoshan, which means the Mountain of Irregular Crest, is about
twelve miles North-east by East of the coal mine at Yentai. It is a
four peaked hill that looks as if it had been riven from the wild
ranges that run Eastward, like a myriad writhing dragons, and set down
on the river flat. Bare heights bend round it on the South, across the
shallow stream: to the East rises the land of monstrous furrows--brown
hills and brown valleys--while on the North stretches the grey plain of
Mukden. Haitaoshan runs almost East and West and from the peaks descend
ridges like ribs. The Western peak is the highest and is crowned with
the ruins of a small temple surrounded by an ancient wall. The Eastern
shoulder falls sharply into a green hollow. Between these points are
three small eminences or peaks joined by bow-shaped saddles. The
mountain is very steep and the slopes are clothed with long fine grass
slippery as ice.
In this stronghold--a spy and a menace to our investing lines--lay
the 2nd battalion of the 18th Regiment of Sharpshooters. They had
made themselves very snug and secure. Along the summit ran a deep
trench by which a man might walk from one end of the mountain to the
other and not be seen. The trench was covered and gave access to
three breastworks built about the peaks like redoubts and flanked by
trenches. Into these shelters the Russians had carried stoves--for the
night and early morning were bitterly cold--and an abundant supply of
food and drink as though prepared for a siege. It was evident that they
feared a night attack and had taken wise precautions. Assault whether
by night or day must come from the Eastern slope, since that alone was
assailable. Their design was to draw the Japanese--should they come in
the darkness--beyond the first line of defence on the East across the
narrow ridge toward the second peak, behind which were hidden five or
six machine guns that would sweep the approach with a sheet of lead
and leave not a man alive. It was a very clever scheme, carefully
thought out and skillfully arranged. Had the Japanese tried to storm
the position in the night they must have failed and have suffered
heavy loss. But just when you think that you have caught the habit of
the Japanese and feel disposed to prophesy, they do something quite
unexpected. And so it happened, unfortunately for the Russian plan,
that Haitaoshan was assailed not at night but in broad day, and was
captured with the loss of only one hundred and seventy men, of whom
seventy were killed.
On the night of the 26th of October a message was brought from
Head-Quarters that at eight o’clock next morning a certain mountain
eight miles from Bastion Hill would be bombarded. The invitation did
not sound promising, for artillery duels had long been daily episodes,
and are rarely interesting save when they pave the way for infantry.
However, we went and were rewarded by a notable example of artillery
and infantry working together as smoothly and effectively as if they
were the fly wheel and the driving wheel of one engine.
South of Haitaoshan, at a distance of about three thousand yards, rise
precipitous hills, on one of which, well hidden from the enemy’s view,
was a field battery. To the East, among the heights, was posted another
battery, and to the West on a lower elevation was a third battery of
captured Russian guns. North of Haitaoshan the hills are more remote,
and to bring their artillery within effective range of our batteries
the enemy would have to expose their guns in the open.
As soon as the morning mist cleared and revealed the heights beyond
the Sha-ho dotted with dark figures, the bombardment began. From the
batteries on the East and South came a slow and steady succession of
shells directed against the trenches on the Eastern slope and the
breastworks on the summit of the mountain. The Russians strove to reply
from the cover of a low ridge on the North-west, but their efforts were
futile. The range was too great, and our batteries could have been hit
only by accident. It was notable that whereas the Japanese used high
explosive shells against the trenches, the enemy employed shrapnel.
The cannonade continued without incident until one o’clock in the
afternoon, when the infantry began to advance.
They came out of trenches on the rising ground to the South and
passed from the green hollow toward the Eastern slope. It was a steep
climb and slippery, but the Japanese, mindful of every detail, had
tied pieces of rope over their boots and climbed like experienced
mountaineers. At first one company appeared and made quickly for the
shoulder of the hill. Another followed, and then a third marched out
of a dark grove on the South and spread along the rib that descended
from the first peak. On the shoulder of the mountain the resistance was
slight, though several Japanese fell before the enemy withdrew to the
first breastwork or redoubt. Clustered like bees under the shoulder
the infantry lay while the reserves advanced from the hollow and the
guns concentrated their fire on the first peak. Here were Russians
plainly enough, though how many we could not say until the shells began
to drive them from cover. At first singly, then in twos and threes
they appeared, running toward the second peak and vanished over the
crest. Shrapnel pursued them, for it was against trenches only that the
Japanese used common shell. Again the little redoubt was wreathed in
smoke and clouds of black earth, and again men ran from it like ants
whose nest has been disturbed. So the bombardment went on until it
seemed that no living thing could be within the circle of fire. And all
this time the infantry lay under the shoulder of the mountain and on
the ribbed slope. It was “dead” ground they clung to--a swift incline
that shielded them from rifle fire, though not more than one hundred
yards from the enemy. For two hours they remained in this position,
while Russians passed to and fro between the first and second peaks,
and an officer raised his head above the breastwork to see if the
Japanese made any movement. It looked as if the attack had failed; yet
so great is the confidence inspired by victory that not one of the
foreign observers doubted for an instant the ability of the Japanese
infantry to accomplish their purpose. Now the guns were seized with
new fury and the mountain became an active volcano. Another moment and
there was silence so deep and solemn that you felt as though suddenly
roused from sleep to discover that the battle and the bloodshed were
only a dream.
At three o’clock a movement was observed in the black cluster under
the shoulder of the hill. A sergeant--without orders, I am told--rose
and climbed rapidly toward the first breastwork. He was followed by
about a dozen soldiers. As they approached the Russians came out of the
trench and stood behind the redoubt with rifles at their shoulder. A
splutter of bullets and one or two Japanese rolled over: but the rest
went on with a rush and came close to the breastwork almost upon the
bayonets of the Russians who leapt forward to meet them. Brave and
desperate men--Russian and Japanese! They closed for a second and then
the Japanese ran back--all that was left of them. The gallant sergeant
quickly found that he had ventured into a hornets’ nest. On his left
was a trench lined with riflemen: in front was the redoubt bristling
with bayonets and darting fire, and suddenly on his right came another
body of Russians. The position of this handful of Japanese looked
hopeless, when just at the critical moment a shell flew over their
heads--it must have singed their hair--and burst right among the enemy.
The half dozen who came out of this fray lost no time in seeking the
cover of the shoulder of the hill.
Meanwhile another company was advancing up the slope under shrapnel
fire from the Russian guns which had abandoned the duel with our
artillery and sought--too late--to arrest the progress of our infantry.
Once more the batteries pounded away at the breastwork and trenches
and once more the enemy ran out of the inferno. They had done their
duty with amazing courage and audacity: they had covered the retirement
of their comrades and now sought safety in flight. As yet it was
impossible to realise that the position had been evacuated and that
the second and third redoubts and lines of trenches were empty. At
five minutes to four o’clock the guns ceased fire: the infantry rose
from under the shelter of the hill; and from the ribbed spur. With
rapid strides they drew near to the first peak and pressed up the
steep slope from the South. A solitary Russian appeared running at full
speed and vanished over the crest. There was a few minutes pause to
take breath and then an officer moved on toward the second breastwork
followed by a soldier waving the flag of the Rising Sun as a signal to
the artillery. No shot came from the little fort and the officer went
quickly forward to the third peak. Again no enemy. And so to the temple
on the highest summit. The Russians were scurrying down the hill into
the valley and across the Sha-ho, while the Japanese stood on the crest
and fired down upon them.